


Coming Back to You

by orphan_account



Category: Bleach
Genre: F/M, Fluff, For sweet pupper, Forehead Kisses, Happy Birthday, Hurt/Comfort, Ichihime - Freeform, Kisses, Minor AiHime, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Romance, you deserve all the fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:42:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25897624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: No matter how far he would go, away from her sight, for no matter how long. She would be there, praying that he returned to her safe and sound.And he would always come back to her.
Relationships: Inoue Orihime/Kurosaki Ichigo, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	Coming Back to You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [swedishaizen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/swedishaizen/gifts).



> A gift fic for the sweetest Alaskan Malamute puppy in the whole entire flippin universe (and you can't change my mind). 
> 
> First time het pairing, and possibly my only one (possibly, because who knows what the future holds XD). 
> 
> Lightly edited so please excuse any errors :3

The night was cool, and a light rain pattered outside of her window. She laid awake on her bed, her eyes wide open, though her mind was buzzing with the sweet lull of sleep. Her hands were playing with themselves underneath the thick comforter tucked to her chin. She couldn’t sleep.

It was surreal, the past few years of her life, ever since she started her high school year.

She never was a normal girl, by any standards; her burnt orange hair the least of her quirks. An upbeat, cheerful girl that befriended everyone, yet dreamy and often lost in the clouds atop her head. It was okay, she knew, her friends loved her regardless.

But what changed her world the most was Kurosaki Ichigo. Her first crush, and possibly first love since high school. Maybe it was all physical attraction for her, at first. Like the many other girls who sighed and whispered his name whenever he walked past, though she knew for sure that he didn’t even notice it. His fiery orange hair that was so similar to hers, yet blazing and bright in the way hers could never be. A free spirit, through and through.

She was used to watching his back. As he walked past her down the corridor of the school, a short wave thrown his back. As he spent his time with Kuchiki Rukia, who came into their lives in all sense of abruptness. As the small raven would pull him out of the class, the boy yelling and protesting, yet he went with her, nonetheless.

As he fought the creature that gave her nightmares since the first time she saw it.

Hollow.

As he turned into a godly being that fought and fought and _fought_ , and leaving her behind, and the only thing she could possibly do was help him from the sidelines, heal his wounds and prayed that he would return to her safe and sound.

As he threw his head back in laughter, celebrating victories with the people from the other side of their world—the shinigami. 

As he went further and further away, and it was futile to even try to catch up to the heights that he stood.

Until she was taken by Aizen Sousuke.

She wondered, then, what his reaction was. Did he scream and shout, searching throughout the town for her? Did he worry? Did he fight those who wished for him to not be rash, as he did when they were trying to save Kuchiki Rukia?

She didn’t dare to ask that of him. She didn’t dare to be so hopeful.

*+*+*----------------------*+*+*

_“Orihime,” the deep, succulent voice called her name, honey dripping and entirely too sweet._

_“Will you allow me to call you that?”_

_She wished Kurosaki-kun would. But this man before her, he didn’t need her permission._

_“He can’t give you what I am offering.”_

_Aizen knew her deepest secrets and wishes, and Aizen was tempting. Aizen was sweet and warm to her. Aizen pulled her into a hug that she had dreamed of many, many times before, in the arms of the boy who wouldn’t so much look at her when she changed her hair or wore a pretty dress_ just for him _._

_Aizen had given her the kiss she didn’t dare to take from Kurosaki-kun._

_Tears streamed down her eyes and wetting her cheeks, and he whispered gently to her, soothing words that would melt even the hard rocks underneath their feet. Aizen was deceptive, he was much too good at it._

_And she was desperate for affection._

_He gave her freedom to roam, and Ulquiorra as her bodyguard. He would visit her at night, and he would tell her sweet nothings as he caressed her long, silky hair, and stroke her cheeks, worshipping her with his words and touches, yet never overstepping the delicate line she knew was wavering. He treated her like a queen, though she knew she was nothing but his prisoner._

Kurosaki-kun _, she thought one day, as she gazed at the endless desert of Hueco Mundo from within her room. Ulquiorra was outside, and Aizen hadn’t come at all that day._

Ichigo _._

_She felt her cheeks heat up. Even within the confines of her head, calling his name was still too much for her._

Ichigo.

Ichigo.

...

Ichigo, will you come for me?

_It was foolish of her, she chuckled to herself, hugging her own body as if the night had—or day? It was always night in here and sometimes it would have—gotten chilly all of a sudden._

_And then Aizen started visiting her less and less. And he was cold, and he demanded things from her. And she knew, as she always did, that she was nothing but another pawn._

_And one day he just locked her in her room, Ulquiorra no longer her bodyguard, but a warden to keep from escaping her prison._

_That was when she noticed the_ reiatsu _signature she held close to her heart._

 _The hope in her was ignited once more. He, no._ They _came for her. Ichigo, and Chad, and Ishida and everyone, even Kuchiki-san and Abarai-kun were there! Ulquiorra came in, and he confirmed her senses, and he tried to subdue her hope by telling her they would all die, in the end._

_They wouldn’t, she insisted. They would win. They would come and they would all escape this hell together._

_It was a long fight, and they didn’t escape unscathed. A lot were lost, though none were the lives of the people she held most dear._

_Her innocent admiration for Kurosaki Ichigo, for one._

_It was at that time, that she truly understood. It wasn’t just a simple attraction, a fleeting affection, that would go away in time._

_When she saw him bloodied and unmoving on the rocks, the aftermath of his defeat against the Cuatro Espada. Her feet wavered and her eyes were unbelieving. She didn’t notice the continuous tears that stung her eyes, didn’t notice how cold her skin had become. Her heart constricted, as if a hand was clenching the fragile organ tight, waiting for it to burst under the pressure._

Ah, this must have been a nightmare _, she fervently thought at that moment_ , I would wake up soon and Kurosaki-kun would gave a small wave at me in the school corridors, and Tatsuki-chan would smile at me and Chizuru-chan would jump around the corner and glomp me.

_There wouldn’t be any shinigami, nor were there Hollows, and wars and enemies to fight. There wouldn’t be any supernatural forces and powers, and they would just be ordinary high school students. And she would be crushing on him from afar, a tentative friendship filled with awkward greetings and smiles. She would not be so crushed when he found himself a girlfriend, and she would simply come running to Tatsuki-chan, crying for her ‘broke heart’._

_Because then, she wouldn’t be in love with him. She wouldn’t be crying_ for _him. She wouldn’t feel the pain—so much pain and she wasn’t even_ injured _; Kurosaki-kun protected her, after all. It would be a dream._

_And it was better than this reality she was faced with._

_This was love, she realized, and it was more bitter than any medicine._

_“Kurosaki-kun,” she sobbed, falling down to her knees. Her hands trembled as she activated her Rikka, trying to heal his wounds. She knew he was still there; she knew he was breathing, but her tears still fall, and every time her hands shook a sob tore from her throat._

_“Kurosaki-kun.”_

+*+*+----------------------+*+*+

“Orihime?"

She opened her eyes. The voice that called her name was thick with sleep, and gruff as if the person was jolted awake, but concern was evident at the forefront.

The rain outside had stopped, but the cold lingered in the dark room. She didn’t know the time, but a line of light in the horizon told her dawn was about to break.

“Hey,” the person said, a rustling in the sheets and he was propped up on his elbow, warm eyes looking down at her and a thumb grazed on her cheek, wiping away the tear she didn’t know she had shed. Orange hair, darkened by the lack of light greeted her eyes and she met the gaze of the amber orbs that was looking at her with concern.

“Ichigo,” she whispered, her eyes getting blurry and she almost didn’t believe what she was seeing. The relief coursed through her veins and she took a deep, stuttering breath.

She was in her bed. Their bed. With Ichigo by her side, his eyes filled with warmth and worry.

 _It_ was _a nightmare._

It wasn’t real. Not anymore.

“Which one?” Ichigo murmured. He snaked an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, until her face was tucked under his chin.

She was quiet, for a moment. “...Hueco Mundo.” Her voice cracked.

“Ulquiorra?” he guessed, stroking her hair, so much like his own, but smoother, warm and beautiful, as if the dawn had graced his eyes every time he saw her.

Her head moved under his own, a nod.

He shushed her softly, as she continued to cry in his arms.

Orihime had been having nightmares of the past. Nightmares of him, dying in the midst of battle.

_There were so many battles._

So much blood. And so much that she had to witness, every time she was there, and she was _always there, wasn’t she? Always there for him._

He thought once, that he was in love with Rukia. Her presence was new, and exuberant and bright and _different_ , and for a while, he thought she was the one. She gave him his shinigami powers, the first time, and then she was the one who gave him back his powers, when it was lost after their final battle with Aizen. She was the reason he was involved in all these larger-than-life events, saving people, the worlds, numerous times. It was in his name, after all. A protector.

He was so drunk on the heights of power, and battle, and protecting _everyone_ , that he almost _missed_ _her_.

Who had been there. As he turned into a godly being that fought and fought and _fought_ , and leaving her behind, and the only thing she could possibly do was help him from the sidelines, heal his wounds and prayed that he would return to her safe and sound.

He always put her in constant worry, and there was a time once, in their past, that he had completely missed all the tears she had shed for him, when he wasn’t looking, when he was too busy with everyone else.

A time that he didn’t notice her deeply found affection for him. Not a fleeting crush or a shallow admiration.

 _Love_ , he realized.

And it was sweeter than any candy.

“I came back to you, didn’t I?” he said, facing her tearful face. A single tear left his own, and her eyes grew in concern. She wiped his tear with her fingers before she even realized it. 

“And I will always come back.”

Her lips trembled and she curled even closer to him, her hands gripping at his chest, curling around his shirt.

He pressed a kiss on her forehead, lifting her face and peppered soft kisses on her face, memorizing every curve and dimple, every shift in the temperature of her skin—her cheeks were warm, but her nose was cold—the wetness from her tears and her dry lips that she always had the bad habit of biting. He tried to make her stop but she couldn’t help herself, she said one day, her mouth pouting and he had to give her a quick peck for being so adorable.

“Ichigo,” she whispered, her voice wavering. “I want, I mean—” she stammered, lips curled, and brows wrinkled in frustration. She didn’t want to ask so much of him, to be so _selfish but_ —

“I love you,” he said. it was soft, almost a whisper; a ghost of a voice. Fleeting. Yet she heard it loud and clear.

Her teary gaze found his, and she could see the truth in his eyes. She smiled. He knew her, even when her words were a mess, her mind ever so tumultuous.

“I love you.”

Her tears stopped after a while, and her breathing slowed, steady. Ichigo nuzzled his face at her hair, his arms curled around her like a cocoon as she slept.

She would be having these nightmares in other nights to come, some worse than others. She would continue to relive the grueling battles that she had to watch, as he fell, bloodied and dying.

But it was okay. He would be there for her, comfort her, take her in his arms and kiss her tears away. And she would know, as she woke up, no matter what happened, no matter what challenges lied before them, no matter how far he would go, away from her sight, for no matter how long. She would be there, praying that he returned to her safe and sound.

And he would always come back to her.

_We come back to each other._

* * *

\+ _end_ +


End file.
